November 12th: Cadbury Roses

Kcal 490 Fat 22.0f Fat(sats) 12.3g Carbs 66.3g (per 100.0g)

These have been a fixture in my families household at Christmas since I can remember. A 2kg lasts us the best part of December. To be honest, apart from them we normally have very little other chocolate round the house ... well until this year of course :) Cadbury Roses come billed as 'an assortment of chocolates' .... let elaborate on this one

Now I know Cadbury Roses come in many different shapes and sizes, but in the interest of fairness to the selection box scoring system, I have decided to score the range on its 80.0g box. This smaller box size provided a 'best of' look at the range and included seven different variants. I honestly can't remember the packaging for Roses being different to what it is today, I swear it hasn't changed. Anyway, I personally don't think the outer packaging looks the most appetising.I like the light blue on purple colour scheme purely for its classic appeal, but something is at the back of mind telling me it is beginning to look outdated and a bit 90s. No such problems with the pieces themselves - each came in vivid and fresh keeping wrappers, and were all shaped and crafted in to detailed looking individual shapes.

One of the things that I noticed universally with all the milk chocolates from the selection, were that their chocolate wasn't quite of Dairy Milk standard. The chocolate had more a sugary taste, with the milk elements still highly detectable, just not quite as prevalent. Below are my tasting notes for each chocolate:

Orange Creme - Orange Foil Cube - This variant had a nice milky, sweet smell and was shaped nicely in a bite sized piece. The shape allowed for a wonderful melt, the chocolate flavour was well established by the time the sweet, fruity fondant was revealed. The orange flavour was very evident and was a nice fit with the milk chocolate. Very Good.

Country Fudge - Brown Finger - A sweet, caramel type smell was relatively forthcoming. The piece was nicely sized and provided a good fit in the mouth. The chocolate layer was very thin meaning the chocolate didn't impose itself too much on the overall taste. The dense fudge centre softened somewhat once warmed in the mouth and had some nice buttery, honey type flavours. The usual dryness that is so typical with fudge was avoided. Though I was disappointed with its lack of flavour progression, I still very much enjoyed this piece. Very Good.

Brazilian Darkness - Red/Gold Cube - This was the only dark chocolate piece out of the selection. The enhanced cocoa content was detectable in the smell, the aroma was not half as sweet as the rest of the range. Again, the piece was a nice size and shape. The dark chocolate was more like unsweetened milk chocolate - it was ok, though far from high standard dark. The toffee centre was nicely flavoured with a delicious butter taste that had detectable notes of hazelnut. I am glad they have done away with the annoying small nut pieces that used to ruin the texture of these pieces!! Good.

Strawberry Dream - Pink Dome - Jim aren't you allergic to strawberry??? err yeah!! I risked it thinking that there wouldn't actually be any real strawberry content ... I was correct! The smell was extremely sweet with some artificial fruity smells. The chocolate was extremely thin and melted in an instant revealing the fondant centre. The fondant was way over portioned meaning the overall taste was horribly sweet ... cue throat burn!! Poor.

Hazel Whirl - Purple/Orange Dome - Sweet, milky smell. Possibly a little to large in its shape ... could have done with being a tad smaller to fit nicely in the mouth in one go. The chocolate was pretty nicely flavoured with the standard milky sweetness. The chocolate melted at a reasonably nice rate revealing the whole hazelnut. The hazelnut was crunchy and forthcoming in its nutty, woody flavours. Very Good.

Hazel in Caramel - Purple Finger - Sweet, milky smell. Was a bit long in its size, again could have been a bit smaller. The outer milk chocolate seemed less sweet in this version, though this was actually to my taste. The caramel was stunningly flavoured - buttery, sweet with a nice burnt sugar aftertaste - gorgeous! The hazelnut was hugely effected by the caramel ... in a bad way! Its taste was lifeless and its texture was soft and mulchy. Good.

Caramel - Light Blue Cube - Like the Brazillian, perfect size and shape for a bite size piece. The chocolate could/should have been thicker but was just about enough to provide a cocoa base flavour at the start of the taste. The toffee centre was fantastically flavoured, sweet and buttery with the occasional hint of saltiness. The taste was long, it was very enjoyable sucking on the toffee until it melted. The best of the lot. Excellent.

Overall there is no denying that Cadbury Roses are a fantastic selection of chocolates, and are well worthy of all their acclaim. The selection is wide and offers a diverse range of differing tastes and textures. Though the selection is wide, there is maybe a little too much emphasis on nut variants. This is all dandy for a person like me who enjoys nuts, though for someone that doesn't their choices maybe a little limited. My personal favourite was the Caramel piece aka the inside-out Cadbury Eclair. The selection box isn't without its dud (see Strawberry Dream!!), though many selections aren't ... I guess they have to cater for all tastes. I don't need to recommend these, it would be naive of me to think that you all haven't had some sort of experience with Cadbury Roses already.

8.4 out of 10